Google Translate for iOS and Android just got smarter
DATA HOOVERER GOOGLE has squeezed in a trio of features to its Translate service to make it slicker to use.
The first new feature is Tap to Translate for Google Translate on Android, which adds the ability to translate text directly within an app by tapping a widget.
This bypasses the tedious need to copy and paste the text into the Translate app, which can annoy butter-fingered people. Effectively, this makes it easier to get instant translations of text from chats, comments, song lyrics and other written content.
The new feature works with all 103 currently supported Google Translate languages. To be honest we couldn’t even name that many languages.
Google has also added an Offline Mode for the iOS version of Translate which, as the name suggests, allows the app to be used when a WiFi or mobile broadband connection is not available. Great for English people trying to get directions when visiting Wales where mobile reception is a far-flung concept.
Much like Offline Mode for the Android app, it works by providing an option to download a small data packet on the language being translated which is stored locally on an iPhone or iPad and allows Translate to be used without an internet connection. Simple but effective.
The final new addition is Chinese language translation for the Word Lens feature. This works by translating text detected on an object captured by the camera on a smartphone, and can now detect and translate ideographic characters in the Chinese written language.
This means that travellers to China who are not familiar with the language can use Word Lens to get translations of menus, signs, labels and other printed text. It could probably come in handy in London’s Soho as well.
Google regularly tinkers with Translate, including fiddling around with on-the-fly translation. But it has to proceed with caution as occasionally Google gets itself into hot water with translation faux pas, such as converting ‘Russian Federation’ into ‘Mordor’.
Source: The Inquirer UK
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